Four Ways That Kara Thrace Didn't Die
by Grav
Summary: And that was how Kara Thrace didn't die.


AN: Maelstrom made me angry. A lot. Because I didn't feel that the send-off did the character justice. Obviously everyone will have a different opinion about how it should have gone. This is mine.

Spoilers: Maelstrom

Rating: Teen (for pretend swearing)

Summary: And that was how Kara Thrace didn't die

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**Four Ways That Kara Thrace Didn't Die**

1. -_In Love_- As Kara boarded the shuttle, her husband took her hand. She looked at him and he grinned at her and she realized that while he may have said he wasn't going to talk about their relationship and that he was just noble enough to keep his promise, the next two days were going to be his quest to win her back. She smiled back at him and didn't try to conceal the promise in her eyes.

Hours later, when he's cried and she's cried and they've frakked and talked, she realizes that there's a reason she's always been able to tell this man everything. She trusts him. He will never betray her, never take any step without thinking of her and he will never stop loving her. Zack died and Lee is gone and Adama called her cancer, but Sam kept coming back, fresh faced and hopeful.

She can't promise a smooth ride. He makes some crack about having flown with her before, and she smacks him for it, but they are both giggling too hard to mean it. He kisses her and tells her that they ride together. When she gets back to _Galatica_, she asks to be reassigned to married quarters.

Time goes by and life goes by and the air is recycled again and again. She yells and they fight and the sex is amazing and sometimes in the middle of the night, she wakes in a sweat from a dream of a picture that Helo once showed her, but she hasn't seen in years. Sam can draw it almost as well as she can now, and they wonder together what it means.

When Cottle tells her that she has cancer, she is afraid. Sam holds her tight and reminds her that they caught it early and they have the meds to treat it. Hera, though only five, offers her blood of her own accord, but the transfusion does no good. Whatever charm worked for Laura Roslin was exhausted before it could touch Kara Thrace.

As Kara dies, Sam holds her hand. The Admiral is there, and so are Lee and Dualla, both fighting back tears, but Kara had eyes only for her husband.

"You saved me," she whispered, fading.

"You saved me first," comes the quick reply.

"Oh, shut up."

And that was how Kara Thrace didn't die.

2. -_In War_- Like the CAP before and the CAP before that and as far back as Kara could remember nothing was happening. Still, the pilots were vigilant, going through the standard sweeps, making all the right manouevers, practicing for the day when the Cylons would find them again.

There was never any doubt in Kara's mind that the Cylons would find them. It was only a matter of when.

And find them, they did. Three heavy raiders burst into view, one of them winking away almost immediately, and the game was up. With Hotdog on her wing, Kara marked the first turkey and fired. She was wide across the bow and swore loudly, even as she spun out of the raider's way. With Hotdog on her tail again, they passed by for another sweep. This time they fared better.

"_Galactica, Starbuck_," came Dee's voice over the comm. "_Detecting radiological weaponry. Sounding radiological alarms_."

Kara grimaced and then thought about the horrible noises that were now sounding through _Galactica_. She relayed Dee's message to the rest of the CAP and they were joined by the rest of the fight squadron. Lee took over command and Kara fell back to leading her own wing.

A horde of light raiders winked in on the side of the fleet farthest from _Galactica_. Lee ordered three wings to deal with them, holding his own wing and Kara's back to finish the heavy raiders. The first one exploded under a barrage from Hotdog and the second made a run at a civilian ship.

Lee's wing bore down hard on its tail. Kara watched as the ships came towards her wing. Just before the raider exploded, it fired a rocket.

"_Frak!_" Hotdog screamed. "_Apollo, it gone one off. Heading –_ "

Hotdog gave the bearings, but Kara heard only one thing. _Sam's ship_.

She's moving before she thinks, Starbuck to the rescue, nothing will get in her way. And nothing does. She gets in its way instead.

And that was how Kara Thrace didn't die.

3. _-In Old Age-_ Lee keeps his promise. This involves considerably more advance planning that he had counted on, including breaking and entering, desecration of a public shrine and public drunkenness. He thinks she would have been proud. Sam would have come with him, but arthritis strikes hard on Earth. It's damper here and colder. But it's home and it's safe and it's theirs, so nobody complains.

_Galactica _became a museum after all. Its vipers in rows, its quarters in inspection day condition and a gift shop in the starboard hanger bay. The President always thought that was the funniest part of all and she was right. They were safe enough to have gift shops.

Breaking in was easy. Lee navigated the old corridors in the dark, never missing a step or a turn as he sought his destination. He knew these halls too well to need a light or a guide book. When he reached the hall he sought, he finally lit his candle. They were all still here, the pictures. Kept on display so that humanity never forgot. Lee walked down the hall reverently until he reached the photo he was looking for. Then he reached across the velvet rope and placed Kara's picture next to Louann Katrain. He left the candle there, it wasn't the same without the smell of incense and burnt down wax.

On his way back to the wake, he marveled again at the lives they'd all ended up with. So hopeless and so frakked, only to end here in peace and joy, surrounded by their own families and die in their sleep at the age of 86.

And that was how Kara Thrace didn't die.

4. -_In the Fight_- "You're not Leoben."

"Of course I am, Kara," he smiled lovingly at her and her flesh crawled. "I've come for you, just like I said I would."

"You are not my destiny."

"No," he admitted. "But I knew that if I told you that I was, you would listen to me. You always listen, Kara, even if you didn't understand."

Kara looked at the dead woman who wasn't her mother and withdrew her hand.

"Your mother always told you that you were special." She frakking hated that voice. "And you hated her, but you believed. She hurt you, and you believed."

Kara stood up and tried to find the way out. There was always a way out.

"I knew that when I saw you, Kara," he went on. "I knew it as well as I knew that if I let you live, you would be my undoing."

There was never a way out.

"So I told you that you were special and you hated me, but you believed. I hurt you, I held you captive and told you that I was a messenger from God, and you believed me."

This was not her destiny.

"God doesn't care about you, Kara," he said. "But He cares about me, and He told me how to get under your skin. How to make you believe."

"You are not my destiny."

Kara pulled up hard. She heard Lee scream and felt the ship explode and knew that she had gone out fighting.

And that was how Kara Thrace didn't die.

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**finis**

GravityNotIncluded, March 6, 2007


End file.
